Sensex zooms 611 points, Nifty ends above 10,400; ITC leads rally

3:30 pm Market Closing: The Sensex was up 610.80 points or 1.83% at 33917.94, and the Nifty up 194.50 points or 1.90% at 10421.40.

About 1380 shares have advanced, 1341 shares declined, and 210 shares are unchanged.

3:20 pm Buzzing: Aurobindo Pharma shares fell 3 percent intraday after the US Food and Drug Administration officials found a 'large female mosquito' in a facility of Aurobindo Pharma during inspection, which, according to them, was not 'free of infestation by rodents and other insects'.

The US FDA had issued nine observations after inspection of the drug maker's Unit 4 formulation facility during February 12-20.

3:18 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices extended rally in last hour of trade, with the Sensex rising 638.42 points or 1.92 percent to 33,945.56 and the Nifty gaining 202.90 points or 1.98 percent at 10,429.80.

3:10 pm Dividend: Colgate Palmolive (India) has informed exchanges that the board of directors has declared a third interim dividend of Rs 5 per share of Re 1 (face value) for the financial year ending March 31, 2018.

The said interim dividend will be paid on the paid-up equity share capital of Rs 27.20 crore.

3:00 pm INX Media Case: A Delhi court sent Karti Chidambaram to judicial custody till March 24 in the INX Media corruption case, while dismissing his plea for early hearing of his bail application.

Special judge Sunil Rana pronounced the order after the CBI said that he was not required for custodial interrogation.

On his plea seeking separate cell and protection in Tihar Jail, the court said the jail manual would be followed.

It also said that his bail plea would be heard on March 15 as scheduled.

The court denied Karti's request for home food in the jail.

Meanwhile, Karti's CA S Bhaskararaman, who is currently in jail in a case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), has moved the court for anticipatory bail in the CBI case of INX Media.

Bharti Airtel, ITC, Tata Motors, Infosys, NTPC were among the top gainers, rising up to 4 percent.

Firm trend in other Asian markets and higher opening in European bourses, following a good show by Wall Street on Friday, lifted investors' mood in domestic markets.

Brokers said fresh buying by investors ahead of inflation data improved the market sentiment. The government will announce inflation data based on consumer price index (CPI) and industrial production data after market hours today.

2:40 pm Unitech Case: The Supreme Court sought details of all unencumbered assets of embattled real estate major Unitech Limited and said that they would be auctioned to refund money to home buyers.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also imposed a cost of Rs 25 lakh on J M Financial Asset Reconstruction Company, which had taken over some loans advanced by HDFC Bank to Unitech Limited.

The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said that the asset reconstruction company had given the impression that it would pay the money for refund to home buyers and now the entire proceeding had been diverted.

"We treat it as an unnecessary diversion form the main case," the bench said while imposing the cost.

2:30 pm Coal Supply: As power plants face coal shortages, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal has asked Railways to increase coal loading to up to 500 rakes per day to meet power demand in summer, official sources said.

In a meeting last week, the minister took review of the coal stock at various power plants and coal loading by Indian railways.

"It was noted that more than 50 power plants had coal stocks less than the stipulated level," official sources told PTI.

It was decided that coal loading would be stepped up to 500 rakes per day from present 464 rakes per day to ensure power supplies are not impacted due to fuel shortage at the plants, the sources said.

Moreover, officials of coal ministry would be deputed to coal companies in order to ensure higher transportation of coal to the siding and faster loading of rakes.

"National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has sanctioned the scheme of amalgamation between Telenor (India) Communications and Bharti Airtel and their respective shareholders and creditors under Sections 230 to 232 of the Companies Act, 2013, company said in release.

The company has entered into a contract with RAL, Malaysia for provision of driving equipment and manpower in Middle East.

The total amount of award is AED 38,77,351 (approximately Rs 6.75 crore).

1:50 pm Order Win: Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has secured a significant order worth Rs 736 crore for supply of Steam Generators from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL).

The Steam Generators will be used for a 700 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) to be installed at Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojna (GHAVP) in Fatehabad district of Haryana. The steam generators will be manufactured at the Tiruchirappalli plant of BHEL.

1:40 pm Europe Update: European equities opened higher as investors continue to digest a stronger-than-expected jobs report in the US.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.23 percent higher with every sector trading in positive territory.

In Asia, markets saw a strong start to the week, after non-farm payrolls in the US on Friday jumped by 313,000 in February. Data released on Friday showed that the US economy added 313,000 jobs last month, above a forecast of 200,000 in a Reuters poll.

1:35 pm 2G Case: The Supreme Court directed investigating agencies CBI and ED to complete their probe into the 2G spectrum allocation cases and other related matters in six months.

A bench of Justices Arun Misra and Naveen Sinha directed the Centre to file a status report on investigation into the 2G spectrum scam and related cases arising out of it, including the Aircel-Maxis deal, in two weeks.

The bench observed that the investigation has been going on for long time and people of this country cannot be kept in dark in the sensitive matter like this.

The apex court also relieved senior advocate Anand Grover, who was appointed by it in 2014 as Special Public Prosecutor in the 2G spectrum case.

1:10 pm Buzzing: United Spirits shares rallied more than 6 percent intraday after the GST Council has not considered taxing extra neutral alcohol (ENA) in its meeting on Saturday.The stock had declined 10 percent over the last one month on worries of ENA taxation under GST.

"No mention/decision about ENA in the GST Council meet of March 10 provides an upside trigger," Deutsche Bank said while maintaining Buy call on the stock with a target price of Rs 3,800, implying 27.78 percent upside from Friday's closing levels.

Ethyl alcohol is a highly concentrated form of spirit which is used in making alcoholic beverages. While it is mainly used for the production of potable alcohol (90 percent usage), it also used as an ingredient for the manufacturing of personal care products (perfume, toiletries etc.) as well as a solvent in paints and printing ink industry.

12:55 pm Order Win: Talbros Automotive Components shares gained nearly 2 percent on winning a break through order from Dana Spicer India Pvt Ltd under its forging division for supply of parts with an estimated revenue of about Rs 35 crore per annum with order span for the life of the model.

12:45 pm Market Update: The market continued to trade strong on positive lead from global markets after better-than-expected US jobs data.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 303.80 points or 0.91 percent at 33,610.94 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 96.30 points or 0.94 percent at 10,323.20, driven by FMCG, technology, private banks and auto stocks.

The research house said the reprieve for cigarette industry can trigger ITC stock's P/E rerating in the interim.

Cigarette business contributed around 40-45 percent to total revenue of the ITC.

12:15 pm VoLTE services launch: Telecom major Bharti Airtel announced the launch of its VoLTE services in Kolkata.

Airtel VoLTE, which works over 4G, will enable customers across the city to enjoy HD quality voice calls with faster call set up time, the company said in a statement.

Airtel had been launching VoLTE based services in parts of the country in the recent months.

Customers can make calls to any mobile or landline network using Airtel VoLTE. Presently, most of the new 4G handsets are VoLTE compatible.

12:05 pm Sugar Stocks turn Bitter:

11:55 am Rajya Sabha Disruption: The Rajya Sabha proceedings were adjourned today till 2 pm due to unrelenting protests by the TDP, the AIADMK and some opposition parties on various issues including special status to Andhra Pradesh and the Cauvery row.

The Upper House did not function the entire last week due to uproar by the opposition as well as NDA ally TDP, barring one hour on March 8 when members participated in a discussion to mark the International Women's Day.

For the sixth day in a row, members continued to protest on issues such as bank fraud, special status to Andhra Pradesh and setting up of Cauvery water management board.

11:40 am Order Win: L&T Special Steels and Heavy Forgings Private Limited, a joint venture of Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), has received an order worth Rs 442 crore from NPCIL to supply forgings for steam generators.

These forgings will be used in the manufacture of the critical equipment for six new indigenous 700 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs).

"The company is contemplating issuing of debt instruments in the form of US dollar denominated senior notes, subject to market conditions," JSW Steel said in a BSE filing.

The company said a preliminary offering circular has been prepared and shall be made available to the prospective investors in relation to the contemplated issue of notes.

"The notes will not be offered or sold in India," it added.

In May last year, the board of directors of JSW Steel had approved to raise long-term funds through the issuance of non-convertible foreign currency/rupee-denominated senior unsecured fixed rate bonds up to USD 1 billion in one or more tranches, in the international market.

10:45 am Market Outlook: Gautam Chhaochharia, Head of India Research of UBS Securities said the rising rates, inflation, the PNB scam, all these issues are adding up and hurting India's narrative and therefore, India's underperformance is not necessarily a surprise.

He further said, "Let's also look at the perspective that India is already an overweight market for many investors, they have trimmed their overweight on India but it still remains an overweight market. So the incremental flows which emerging markets are getting globally, India is not getting the similar level of flows in proportion that it used to earlier because investors are also getting opportunities in other markets because of the recovery they have seen over the last year, year and a half."

On the banking fraud front, he said there is nervousness building up post the PNB Scam, whether this could lead to further NPL's in these banks linked to that scam per se and also in general, there are more negative surprises ahead. Bank stocks and investing is also about confidence and how they deliver and that confidence has obviously taken a hit and secondly, the RBI's measure in terms of acknowledging all NPLs faster than usual is also at the margin worrying for many investors.

The research house remains neutral on state-owned banks from a portfolio positioning perspective. "We have only one individual state-owned bank on a buy rating, the rest of them are neutral or sell. So, for SOE banks, these are still early days to get in. We need much more clarity on the banks governance and reforms, specifically after the PNB Scam. So, the recap trade was promising earlier but now post PNB, the investor would look for further clarity on reforms and governance going ahead than just recapitalisation of balance sheets," he said.

10:35 am Closing of Operations: Eicher Motors informed exchanges that the board of directors of Eicher Polaris Private Limited (EPPL), EML's equal joint venture with US-based Polaris Industries Inc., on March 9, 2018, passed a resolution to close the operations of EPPL with immediate effect.

10:32 am Rupee Update: The rupee strengthened by 17 paise to 64.99 against the US dollar at the interbank forex market on fresh selling of the greenback by exporters and banks amid foreign capital inflows.

Dealers said dollar's weakness against a basket of currencies despite strong US jobs report data and early gains in domestic equity markets supported the rupee.

On Friday, the rupee had lost 3 paise to end at 65.17 against the US dollar.

10:24 am Trader War Impact: US President Donald Trump's decision to hike duties on steel and aluminium could result in retaliatory action from EU and China, triggering a trade war and hurting global economic growth, S&P Global Ratings said.

It said the overall economic impact of the tariffs on the United States in the near term is likely to be minimal, with a mixed impact on corporate sectors.

"Posing a greater threat is the risk of retaliatory action by major US trade partners such as the European Union (EU) and China triggering a trade war, hurting American exporters, global trade, and global economic growth," S&P said.

The US had last week raised import duties on steel and aluminium products to 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

According to trade experts, the decision is unlikely to impact exports of these items to America. However, they have expressed fear that such protectionist measures would impact global trade.

The company's JV ARSS-KIPPL has received work order worth Rs 15.44 crore for supply of ballast in connection with third and fourth line work between Dhenkanal to Hindol road in KUR-division by East Coast railway.

9:50 am DB on Maruti: Deutsche Bank has maintained its Buy call on Maruti Suzuki with a target price of Rs 10,000 per share.

The research house observed that the stock has declined 10 percent YTD due to the overhang of potential negative surprises. Forex and raw materials pose a risk to margins, but the impact should be low, it feels.

The company continues to be in a sweet spot in its model cycle, it said, adding that it has cut its EPS forecasts by 6-8 percent due to a reset in forex assumptions.

9:40 am PSU banks underperform: PSU banks caught in bear trap as the Nifty PSU Bank index was the only loser among sectoral indices, falling over a percent after Andhra Bank case.